In the field of electronic commerce, businesses and individuals can purchase and sell products using various electronic media, such as the Internet. Businesses use electronic media to sell products to individual purchasers and to other businesses. In some business arrangements, a distributor may offer a product for sale to a reseller, which may in turn offer that product for resale under the reseller's private label to a potential purchaser. When a reseller offers a distributor's products for resale under a private label, the distributor and the reseller can often realize sales that might otherwise be lost to other businesses.
Electronic media are useful for providing product information about products for sale. For example, a potential purchaser can often obtain product information from an Internet website of a business selling the product. However, providing product information through electronic media can present some difficulties for businesses.
For some businesses, traditional methods of providing product information through electronic media do not provide them with sufficient control over their display of product information. If a business does not have sufficient control over its display of product information then a potential purchaser can “price shop” that business. For example, if a business displays product information on a website, and that product information includes manufacturer information and price information, then potential purchasers can use the manufacturer information to shop for that product at other businesses, seeking a lower price. In price shopping, a business that introduces products to potential purchasers risks losing sales to other businesses.
A business that does not have sufficient control over its display of product information through electronic media can also encounter various other difficulties. If a business does not control the display of price information for a product, then the business may have difficulty encouraging potential purchasers to focus on the product's features rather than the product's price. Further, if a business does not control the display of price information for a product, then the business may not be able to display different prices in different locations, to account for local market conditions. In addition to price information, a business may also encounter various difficulties, if it does not have sufficient control over its display of other product information, such as product names, descriptions, numbers, pictures, product availability, etc.